Paper Recycling Market Stacked Up

April 06, 1989|By DAVID LERMAN Staff Writer

WILLIAMSBURG — The Peninsula's first municipal recycling program is scrambling to find a buyer for the newspapers it collects because of dried-up market.

"The newspaper market is just completely glutted," said Joan Swedenborg, co-owner of the Williamsburg Recycling Center, which had bought and resold the papers. "We haven't been able to find anybody yet that will take it."

Industry officials say so many localities across the nation are flocking to recycling to take pressure off fast-growing landfills that prices for paper have plummeted.

The glut comes as more and more localities in Hampton Roads are turning to recycling. It is unclear whether other local recycling efforts will be hampered.

Newport News will begin its first curbside collection of recyclable materials May 5, said Sue Hogue, the city's recycling coordinator. But Tidewater Fiber Corp., a Chesapeake paper broker, remains committed to buying the city's paper for the pilot program, said president Joseph Benedetto.

"We do buy newspapers and we do have the markets," Benedetto said.

Smithfield will participate in a regional recycling program in May as part of an effort coordinated by the Southeastern Public Service Authority. Hampton plans a trial recycling program later this year.

Until Monday the Williamsburg recycling center had sold its newspapers to Hampton Roads Recycling Corp., a Hampton paper broker, which in turn sent the papers to Atlanta-based Southeast Recycling Corp.

Southeast Recycling cut by more than half the amount of paper it buys from Hampton Road Recycling and cut back orders for other brokers across the country, said George Elder, the company's purchasing manager.

Elder, whose national firm buys 250,000 tons of paper a year and recycles it for newspaper publishers, said prices have dropped because too many localities have begun trying to recycle at a time when the market for paper was already full.

"The emphasis on mandatory recycling is really mandatory collection," he said. "There's no guarantee there's going to be a market for it. Mills are about at capacity."

Williamsburg officials are trying to find a new paper broker for its fledgling recycling program, which began last October.

"We're trying to make other arrangements," said Councilman Trist B. McConnell, who heads the city's recycling commission.

Williamsburg Recycling, on Mooretown Road in York County, will not be able to accept any newspaper until a new buyer is found, Swedenborg said.

The recycling center will continue to accept glass, aluminum, cardboard and plastic. "We are not going out of business," she said.

James Lehner, a West Point paper broker, said he is trying to determine whether he could help the city by accepting its newspaper with the understanding that he would not pay Williamsburg for it until he could find a buyer.

"I told Williamsburg I will try to move that material for them," Lehner said. "The problem is the market's dead. Newspaper has been depressed for the last four or five months."

The price of recycled paper ready for shipping overseas has dropped from about $47.50 a ton last summer, Lehner said, to as little as $20 a ton this month.

Ed Swedenborg, co-owner of Williamsburg Recycling, said he has 70,000 pounds of newspaper sitting at his plant that he may not be able to sell. Dan Jordan, owner of Hampton Roads Recycling, said he has 500 tons of paper in his warehouse, which could be worth about $12,500 at going market rates.

"It's a grand mess," Jordan said.

Williamsburg Recycling, which opened last fall and attracts about 40 residents a day, collected about 100,000 pounds of newspaper in a good month, Joan Swedenborg said. Recyclers were paid a penny per pound.

Judith Kator, who helped the city create its recycling program, said between 1,500 and 1,600 households are participating. The city hopes to launch a recycling program for Williamsburg businesses as early as this fall. She said she does not expect it will be difficult to find a broker for that project, which would include recycling paper of higher quality than newspaper.